To answer your question about image resizing and compression by Fotola:

Uploaded images are resized proportionally to fit within a 500x500 box, all profile information is stripped (EXIF headers and the like), and (if JPEG) saved with compression 70 (out of 100).

It's true that this is a little brutish -- it might be better to check the input image and only resize and recompress if necessary, if the image is greater than 40KB say. That would give you the freedom to make your own tradeoffs in size vs. quality.

The other thing that will be available once the Berylium backend is upgraded is the ability to leave the uploaded image untouched and available on the server for non-destructive cropping, resizing, and the like. I'm interested in this primarily as a means for photographers to sell high-quality versions of their photos or allow friends and family access for printable versions, but there could also be an option that if you're willing to pay bandwidth penalties you could display a higher-quality version of the image in place of the standard web version.

I think I'll spend some time putting in a users forum today, we need to be able to discuss these things in a central location. Thanks for the brain-jog on this!